Antiquities & Ancient Art

Sale 1188

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May 25 | 11:00 AM EDT

Live

| Chicago

Lot 198

Lot 198

A Greek Marble Portrait Head of a Ruler

Status:

Closed

Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000

Estimate$20,000 – $30,000

Status

Closed

A Greek Marble Portrait Head of a Ruler

Circa 3rd-2nd Century B.C.

Height 6 1/4 inches (15.9 cm).

Provenance:

Galleria Serodine, Ascona, Switzerland.

Private Collection, Switzerland; where acquired from the above, 5 May 1989.

Two grooves along the top of this head originally held a royal diadem, presumably made of bronze, and indicates that the man represented is a ruler. A number of royal portraits can be grouped around the Egyptian Greek kings of the second and early first centuries B.C. (Ptolemies IV-VIII), but a precise identification is often difficult because many of these marble portraits were clearly reworked to represent the next king who seized power. In addition, some of the finer marble likenesses, including the head under consideration, were strongly idealized thus further hampering an accurate identification. The splendid series of royal portraits on Ptolemaic coins provides the best surviving evidence for pinpointing individual rulers. For a similar portrait head of Ptolemy IV, see H. Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemäer, Berlin, 1975, p. 47 no. 171, Pl. 36.

See additional images.

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Please contact the Auction Specialist for details.

Jacob Coley

Senior Vice President, Head of Department, Antiquities and Ancient Art

[email protected]312 280 1212

Mr. Coley joined the Antiquities department in 2021 after working as Managing Director in the Ancient Art department at Colnaghi, the world’s oldest commercial art gallery, where he helped to establish the Ancient Art department and launched Colnaghi New York in 2017. Prior to Colnaghi, Mr. Coley was in the Greek and Roman Art department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Coley holds a B.A. from the University of Miami and an M.A. in Art Market from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and he earned an art-appraisal certificate from New York University.

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Antiquities & Ancient Art

A Greek Marble Portrait Head of a Ruler

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